FBI agents paid a visit to the Barge Inn restaurant and bar in Downtown Jersey City today, shutting down the Jersey City institution temporarily.

The agents, accompanied by New Jersey State Police and Jersey City cops, were inside the Third Street establishment for about two hours. Officers on the scene declined to say what they were investigating.

The Barge Inn has a restaurant with an entrance on Third Street near Monmouth Street, while there’s a separate entrance to a bar on Monmouth Street. That’s where the focus of the investigation seemed to be.

A man who told The Jersey Journal he was inside the bar when it happened said he was “thrown to the ground” when agents barreled inside this afternoon.

“I got rousted,” said the man, who declined to give his name and refused to provide any more details.

A phone call placed to the Barge Inn was unsuccessful – the number was disconnected. Would-be patrons who entered through the Third Street entrance quickly left, saying they were told the eatery was closed.

FBI spokeswoman Barbara Woodruff said she could confirm only that the agency was at the Barge Inn today on official business. Woodruff would not disclose the details of the FBI's investigation.

The Barge Inn, which opened in the late 1960s, is something of a Jersey City institution. It was a regular gambling site “back in the day,” said one Jersey City source.

The man who told The Jersey Journal he had been inside the Barge Inn when the FBI dropped in lurked around the scene as agents came in and out of the bar. When they departed at about 4 p.m., he went back inside, near a faded sign reading, “Businessmans lunch.”